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2Charlie
2Charlie
Inspiring
July 24, 2017
Answered

Is there a way repair a corrupted a PDF file?

  • July 24, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 11446 views

The PDF looks fine when it was saved. The next day when it was opened again, the PDF file looks corrupted with texts all over the page in different places with numerous spaces around these characters. Is there a way to repair this file or is it goner?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Karl Heinz Kremer

Did you do a "Save" or a "Save As"? If it was just a "Save", you may be able to restore the last saved version. To do that, create a copy of your file - NEVER WORK ON THE ORIGINAL - and then open the file in a text editor that supports binary files (meaning, it will not silently convert content). You can for example use NotePad++ on Windows. Now jump to the end of the file. You should see a line that looks ends like this:

%%EOF

There may be some other information before that %%EOF mark, but that should be the last information on the last line. Now search backwards to the previous %%EOF and delete anything from just after that %%EOF to the end of the file, so that %%EOF is again the last information on the last line in the file. Save the file and try to open it in Acrobat again. This should give you the version you saved just before things went wrong.

If it's possible to actually repair your version of the file depends on what exactly happened, but chances are pretty slim. Don't fall into the trap of companies who try to sell you file repair tools. Every single tool I've tested so far that promises to repair PDF files is a scam and does not work.

2 replies

D
Damon272573917986
Participant
November 22, 2022

Yes, there is a professional way to repair corrupt PDF files. That helps to recover PDF files without any data loss. You can try a professional tool like a PDF recovery tool that helps to take back corrupted and uncorrupted PDF files easily. The advanced feature of this tool helps to recover PDF files in two modes of recovery standard mode and advanced mode. Its amazing feature enables you to recover large PDF files easily. Another feature that makes it different from other tool is it recover data from the outermost device. It shows the preliminary study before recovery. It detects the PDF file in your system. It helps to recover individual and a bunch of PDF files effortlessly. 

Karl Heinz Kremer
Community Expert
Karl Heinz KremerCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
July 24, 2017

Did you do a "Save" or a "Save As"? If it was just a "Save", you may be able to restore the last saved version. To do that, create a copy of your file - NEVER WORK ON THE ORIGINAL - and then open the file in a text editor that supports binary files (meaning, it will not silently convert content). You can for example use NotePad++ on Windows. Now jump to the end of the file. You should see a line that looks ends like this:

%%EOF

There may be some other information before that %%EOF mark, but that should be the last information on the last line. Now search backwards to the previous %%EOF and delete anything from just after that %%EOF to the end of the file, so that %%EOF is again the last information on the last line in the file. Save the file and try to open it in Acrobat again. This should give you the version you saved just before things went wrong.

If it's possible to actually repair your version of the file depends on what exactly happened, but chances are pretty slim. Don't fall into the trap of companies who try to sell you file repair tools. Every single tool I've tested so far that promises to repair PDF files is a scam and does not work.

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